This is a blog for Mrs. Ballew's Civics and Economics classes.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
4th Period Current Event 3/12
Please post your current event for Friday, March 12 below. As always, include the topic of your article, and a 5-6 sentence summary. You may use a podcast or video clip instead of an article.
Same-Sex Marriage in DC http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/09/same.sex.marriages/index.html
The District of Columbia now is another place where same-sex couples have the option to get married legally. The other places where same-sex couples may get married are: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, & Vermont. DC made same-sex marriage legal as of this Tuesday (March 9th)and on Tuesday three couples got married - two lesbian couples, one gay couple. The first thing I have to say about this article is I had NO idea DC was deciding whether or not they were going to allow these practices. I'm glad that some progress is being made in the issue. Yeah DC isn't much but still it's better than nothing or even working backwards. Maybe since DC is allowing same-sex marriage, maybe some other "push-over" places will be influenced by the decision!
I think the bravery that this little boy showed is incredible. This goes to show the importance of educating our children of emergency procedures even at that young of an age. What happened to Carlos could have happened to anyone, and it's important that everyone's prepared for it. If parents practice these situations with their kids, they will be able to remain calm and composed like Carlos. You never know who's hands your life may fall into. -Bailey Ethridge
In this article, I learned that Obama has proposed an Education Bill which will essentially take out the middle man in student loans (that is big banks and other businesses who strive to earn a profit,) and make it more direct. This is projected to save around eighty-seven billion dollars, which Obama would then use to reinvest into other student aids, such as the Pell grants. I feel this is a great idea. Why would you try to privatize a lending business, when a non-profit would be much more cost efficient and affordable for the poor anyway? This plan would save poor students millions, even billions of dollars overall. How could it not be a great idea? Hopefully, this will be passed in the senate (as the House has already past some sort of Bill,) so the poor can finally get more aid, instead of the lousy banks making a bigger profit.
The article I read this week described a Mississippi High School that canceled its prom this year to stop an 18 year old lesbian student go to prom with her girlfriend. Being from chapel hill I tend to be more liberal in my beliefs, so I particularly find this very surprising that a school would choose to cancel a dance over something so insignificant. The school is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU says that the students first amendment right to freedom of expression is being violated. The student only wants the chance to enjoy her prom night like the other heterosexual students at her high school.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/11/mississippi.prom.suit/index.html?hpt=T2 This is completely ridiculous. Completely getting rid of a prom just because of a homosexual couple wanting to go is, as the article said, a complete violation of first amendment rights. I think that it is a really dumb idea to scrap prom and ruin a chance to have fun for everyone rather than to be fair and allow everyone to bring who they want to their prom. It is also bad that since they canceled the prom on account of this one student, it is likely that she will be looked upon negatively by her fellow students for being "The One Who Ruined Prom", which, of course, is completely ridiculous. Basically I just think that the school system is being really stupid, since they are choosing to victimize the entire school than allow freedom of expression
Recently, members of a small Kansas church have been traveling around the country, protesting at funerals of deceased soldiers. They shout at grieving families and display signs like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God Blew Up the Troops," claiming that God is punishing the U.S. for homosexuality. There will be a Supreme Court hearing over their free speech rights and the privacy rights of the grieving families. Personally, I think that while the church does have the right to free speech their protesting is completely out of line. Homosexuality is not a sin, and even if it was (which it's not), it wouldn't make sense for God to punish someone who was innocent (one of the deceased soldiers wasn't a homosexual). The families are already hurting for their loss, and it is completely insensitive to shout at them that it was their fault. The families are expressing their grief in a ceremony that is private, and the protesters have no right to intrude upon it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date Wow this story about actually canceling a whole school's prom, is so absurd. It is so stupid that a school would punish all of the students because of one contraversal issue. And also, why cant the students be allowed to bring same-sex dates to the prom? That is violating the rights of those two girls and all the other students as well. The girls should bring this case to court or something, to be able to voice their oppinions get prom back! -John Alex Porter
Wow when I watched this video I couldn't believe it. I actually thought this was really cool, and so brave on Carlos's part. The fact that he might have saved his family blew my mind. I think that for his first reaction when that happened to be to grab his little sister, hide in the bathroom, and call 911 to be amazing. I feel for a 7 year old he handled that very well, I don't even think I would have been that brave. I thought this video was very interesting and very awesome for Carlos.
I think this is ridiculus. Is is almost a joke. They are obviosly not mocking Lindsay Lohan. I don't see how she could win this suit. $100 million is alot of money. She probable wants attention or $, or maybe both.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/11/ap/strange/main6289261.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines A devoteee in miami participated in an African tradition by drinking snail slime. This is used for healing ceremonies in their religion. This snail is prohibited in the U.S. Their not charging him with anything but state and federal wildlife are still investigating. This snail can grow up to 10 inches but can also make you very ill by weight loss and strange lumps in your stomach.
The fact that the same-sex marriage being illegal in many states is not surprising, sadly. The fact that kids are suffering because of it is shocking. I mean, i understand why it is the way it is, but for a child of 10 years old to feel like his family is not a "typical" family, that's just downright depressing. But, then again, how do we define a family? The issue is making same-sex marriages legal in all states to make kids like the one in this article feel like they have a family. There are many organizations that are working for this as of today. I think this is appaling that so many states have rejected same-sex marriage when there are 10 year old kids who don't feel like they're really part of a family. Evan Wolfson said "'There is no good reason to punish children raised by gay parents by denying parents marriage and its protections. It harms kids rather than helping them.' " I think he is absolutely right, it is harming kids, and possibly sending them to depression, rather than helping/protecting them from whatever the world has in store.
Schools in the US are no longer superior to schools in other countries, and our high-school students are behind others of their age in other countries. We also have a lower graduation rate than many other countries. I think it's sad that America is falling behind so much; during the 20th century, we were a world leader, and we are slowly leaving that role. In addition, in a competitive global market for jobs, Americans are going to start losing out for international positions. There's also the simple fact that American students are no longer necessarily receiving a top-quality education, which is unfortunate. We want the best education possible, something which can apparently no longer be easily found in this country. Are other countries getting better, or are we getting worse?
I'm afraid I don't fully understand this article. What I gathered from the text is that China has somehow been intentionally repressing the yuan. I also gathered that this practice is highly frowned upon by our and other countries. I further gathered that the pressure on China has caused them to rethink this practice. However, what I fail to grasp is how exactly currency can be repressed. What does it mean for the yuan to be consistently a certain percentage "behind" the dollar, and how is this economic strategy put into practice? It indeed seems highly unethical.
This is not the first time that I have heard or read about Shirley Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, and for the first time, I was happy to read this article, and even a little bit hopeful. For the first time, some sort of action is being taken to try and stop this "church" from protesting at soldier's funerals. Regardless of whether or not this church, or any group for that matter supports or condemns an issue such as homosexuality, there is a line where first amendment rights and basic human respect overlap. This church has taken that line and beat it to death with a sock full of bars of soap. Protesting at anyone's funeral is a despicable thing to do, and doing at the funeral of a person who has given their life for their country makes it so much worse. I cannot describe how much I would like to tear apart everyone the belongs to this church. People like this make me so angry, and they make me ashamed to be American, or a human for that matter. These people are just despicable, and it makes me hopeful that people are trying to stop them. Churches, sadly, have a great amount of influence in policy making, whether you want to accept that or not, and so I'm not THAT confident. But hey, I'll still hope.
Congress claims that they are closing in on passing a health care bill but do not believe that they will be able to make past the president's March 18th deadline. Beside me being completely against a government run health care system, I believe that setting a deadline so early, especially for this serious of an issue, is ridiculous. Even worse there have been talks about passing the bill made by congress last year despite the numerous objections just so that a bill can be passed by a artificial deadline. I understand that Obama wants to show up his detractors by passing his dream health care bill shortly after his first year but he doesn't understand that if the bill ends up being a bust he would only prove how bad of a president he is. Paying more money for less health coverage doesn't make sense which is why this health care bill should be killed by Congress and we should stop trying to get the government involved where it doesn't belong. All Obama has done in his presidency is win an award he didn't deserve (the Nobel Peace Prize) and trying to pass a bill that doesn't make any sense. I hope that this bill gets killed and the issue isn't revisited but unfortunatly it doesn't appear that things will turn out that way.
It's good to see that the Chilean president has such high hopes for what he can do for his country. After the terrible earth quake in Haiti, it was scary to here that Chile had had another terrible earth quake. Chile has higher hopes for their recovery than Haiti did which is good to here. The earth quake in Chile wasn't nearly as bad as the one that hit Haiti though. It's scary to see how dramatic the environment has been recently. Earth quakes can't be predicted and do a lot of damage. Luckily Chile is in a lot better conditions than Haiti.
I thought it was interesting that this man was impeached since it was only the second impeachment of a federal judge in twenty years. I'm interested to find out exactly what Judge Porteous did to receive this impeachment. It's good that people are cracking down on government officials with bad intentions because that strengthens our government. I bet there are a lot of government people that are selfish and are taking bribes or other things along those lines. I hope we get rid of all bad government people because they weaken our government.
I thought that it was amazing that a boy so young knew exactly what to do when three men with guns rang the doorbell at his house. Grabbing his sister and a phone isn't what someone would expect a seven year old to do. But Carlos did and he scared them off as well when he told them that he had called 911. I think that this goes to show that parents should at least try to teach their children how to dial 911 even if they are young because you never know when you may need help and they are the only ones there.
Same-Sex Marriage in DC
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/09/same.sex.marriages/index.html
The District of Columbia now is another place where same-sex couples have the option to get married legally. The other places where same-sex couples may get married are: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, & Vermont. DC made same-sex marriage legal as of this Tuesday (March 9th)and on Tuesday three couples got married - two lesbian couples, one gay couple. The first thing I have to say about this article is I had NO idea DC was deciding whether or not they were going to allow these practices. I'm glad that some progress is being made in the issue. Yeah DC isn't much but still it's better than nothing or even working backwards. Maybe since DC is allowing same-sex marriage, maybe some other "push-over" places will be influenced by the decision!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_boy_s911_call
ReplyDeleteI think the bravery that this little boy showed is incredible. This goes to show the importance of educating our children of emergency procedures even at that young of an age. What happened to Carlos could have happened to anyone, and it's important that everyone's prepared for it. If parents practice these situations with their kids, they will be able to remain calm and composed like Carlos. You never know who's hands your life may fall into.
-Bailey Ethridge
In this article, I learned that Obama has proposed an Education Bill which will essentially take out the middle man in student loans (that is big banks and other businesses who strive to earn a profit,) and make it more direct. This is projected to save around eighty-seven billion dollars, which Obama would then use to reinvest into other student aids, such as the Pell grants. I feel this is a great idea. Why would you try to privatize a lending business, when a non-profit would be much more cost efficient and affordable for the poor anyway? This plan would save poor students millions, even billions of dollars overall. How could it not be a great idea? Hopefully, this will be passed in the senate (as the House has already past some sort of Bill,) so the poor can finally get more aid, instead of the lousy banks making a bigger profit.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/politics/11loans.html?ref=us
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMichael Brews
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/11/mississippi.prom.suit/index.html
The article I read this week described a Mississippi High School that canceled its prom this year to stop an 18 year old lesbian student go to prom with her girlfriend. Being from chapel hill I tend to be more liberal in my beliefs, so I particularly find this very surprising that a school would choose to cancel a dance over something so insignificant. The school is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU says that the students first amendment right to freedom of expression is being violated. The student only wants the chance to enjoy her prom night like the other heterosexual students at her high school.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/11/mississippi.prom.suit/index.html?hpt=T2
ReplyDeleteThis is completely ridiculous. Completely getting rid of a prom just because of a homosexual couple wanting to go is, as the article said, a complete violation of first amendment rights. I think that it is a really dumb idea to scrap prom and ruin a chance to have fun for everyone rather than to be fair and allow everyone to bring who they want to their prom. It is also bad that since they canceled the prom on account of this one student, it is likely that she will be looked upon negatively by her fellow students for being "The One Who Ruined Prom", which, of course, is completely ridiculous. Basically I just think that the school system is being really stupid, since they are choosing to victimize the entire school than allow freedom of expression
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/08/homosexuality.protest/index.html?npt=NP1
ReplyDeleteRecently, members of a small Kansas church have been traveling around the country, protesting at funerals of deceased soldiers. They shout at grieving families and display signs like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God Blew Up the Troops," claiming that God is punishing the U.S. for homosexuality. There will be a Supreme Court hearing over their free speech rights and the privacy rights of the grieving families. Personally, I think that while the church does have the right to free speech their protesting is completely out of line. Homosexuality is not a sin, and even if it was (which it's not), it wouldn't make sense for God to punish someone who was innocent (one of the deceased soldiers wasn't a homosexual). The families are already hurting for their loss, and it is completely insensitive to shout at them that it was their fault. The families are expressing their grief in a ceremony that is private, and the protesters have no right to intrude upon it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date
ReplyDeleteWow this story about actually canceling a whole school's prom, is so absurd. It is so stupid that a school would punish all of the students because of one contraversal issue. And also, why cant the students be allowed to bring same-sex dates to the prom? That is violating the rights of those two girls and all the other students as well. The girls should bring this case to court or something, to be able to voice their oppinions get prom back!
-John Alex Porter
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/03/11/kaye.young.hero.cnn?hpt=C2
ReplyDeleteWow when I watched this video I couldn't believe it. I actually thought this was really cool, and so brave on Carlos's part. The fact that he might have saved his family blew my mind. I think that for his first reaction when that happened to be to grab his little sister, hide in the bathroom, and call 911 to be amazing. I feel for a 7 year old he handled that very well, I don't even think I would have been that brave. I thought this video was very interesting and very awesome for Carlos.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/media/e-trade-says-lindsay-lohans-100-million-lawsuit-is-without-me/19395269/?icid=main|main|dl3|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyfinance.com%2Fstory%2Fmedia%2Fe-trade-says-lindsay-lohans-100-million-lawsuit-is-without-me%2F19395269%2F
ReplyDeleteI think this is ridiculus. Is is almost a joke. They are obviosly not mocking Lindsay Lohan. I don't see how she could win this suit.
$100 million is alot of money. She probable wants attention or $, or maybe both.
-Glenn Floyd
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/11/ap/strange/main6289261.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines
ReplyDeleteA devoteee in miami participated in an African tradition by drinking snail slime. This is used for healing ceremonies in their religion. This snail is prohibited in the U.S. Their not charging him with anything but state and federal wildlife are still investigating. This snail can grow up to 10 inches but can also make you very ill by weight loss and strange lumps in your stomach.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/fashion/21kids.html
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the same-sex marriage being illegal in many states is not surprising, sadly. The fact that kids are suffering because of it is shocking. I mean, i understand why it is the way it is, but for a child of 10 years old to feel like his family is not a "typical" family, that's just downright depressing. But, then again, how do we define a family? The issue is making same-sex marriages legal in all states to make kids like the one in this article feel like they have a family. There are many organizations that are working for this as of today. I think this is appaling that so many states have rejected same-sex marriage when there are 10 year old kids who don't feel like they're really part of a family. Evan Wolfson said "'There is no good reason to punish children raised by gay parents by denying parents marriage and its protections. It harms kids rather than helping them.' " I think he is absolutely right, it is harming kids, and possibly sending them to depression, rather than helping/protecting them from whatever the world has in store.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/education/10educ.html?ref=todayspaper
ReplyDeleteSchools in the US are no longer superior to schools in other countries, and our high-school students are behind others of their age in other countries. We also have a lower graduation rate than many other countries. I think it's sad that America is falling behind so much; during the 20th century, we were a world leader, and we are slowly leaving that role. In addition, in a competitive global market for jobs, Americans are going to start losing out for international positions. There's also the simple fact that American students are no longer necessarily receiving a top-quality education, which is unfortunate. We want the best education possible, something which can apparently no longer be easily found in this country. Are other countries getting better, or are we getting worse?
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/12/obama-urges-china-to-cut-currency/
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I don't fully understand this article. What I gathered from the text is that China has somehow been intentionally repressing the yuan. I also gathered that this practice is highly frowned upon by our and other countries. I further gathered that the pressure on China has caused them to rethink this practice. However, what I fail to grasp is how exactly currency can be repressed. What does it mean for the yuan to be consistently a certain percentage "behind" the dollar, and how is this economic strategy put into practice? It indeed seems highly unethical.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/08/homosexuality.protest/index.html?npt=NP1
ReplyDeleteThis is not the first time that I have heard or read about Shirley Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, and for the first time, I was happy to read this article, and even a little bit hopeful. For the first time, some sort of action is being taken to try and stop this "church" from protesting at soldier's funerals. Regardless of whether or not this church, or any group for that matter supports or condemns an issue such as homosexuality, there is a line where first amendment rights and basic human respect overlap. This church has taken that line and beat it to death with a sock full of bars of soap. Protesting at anyone's funeral is a despicable thing to do, and doing at the funeral of a person who has given their life for their country makes it so much worse. I cannot describe how much I would like to tear apart everyone the belongs to this church. People like this make me so angry, and they make me ashamed to be American, or a human for that matter. These people are just despicable, and it makes me hopeful that people are trying to stop them. Churches, sadly, have a great amount of influence in policy making, whether you want to accept that or not, and so I'm not THAT confident. But hey, I'll still hope.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/11/democrats-white-house-close-health/
ReplyDeleteCongress claims that they are closing in on passing a health care bill but do not believe that they will be able to make past the president's March 18th deadline. Beside me being completely against a government run health care system, I believe that setting a deadline so early, especially for this serious of an issue, is ridiculous. Even worse there have been talks about passing the bill made by congress last year despite the numerous objections just so that a bill can be passed by a artificial deadline. I understand that Obama wants to show up his detractors by passing his dream health care bill shortly after his first year but he doesn't understand that if the bill ends up being a bust he would only prove how bad of a president he is. Paying more money for less health coverage doesn't make sense which is why this health care bill should be killed by Congress and we should stop trying to get the government involved where it doesn't belong. All Obama has done in his presidency is win an award he didn't deserve (the Nobel Peace Prize) and trying to pass a bill that doesn't make any sense. I hope that this bill gets killed and the issue isn't revisited but unfortunatly it doesn't appear that things will turn out that way.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/03/20103123919639692.html
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see that the Chilean president has such high hopes for what he can do for his country. After the terrible earth quake in Haiti, it was scary to here that Chile had had another terrible earth quake. Chile has higher hopes for their recovery than Haiti did which is good to here. The earth quake in Chile wasn't nearly as bad as the one that hit Haiti though. It's scary to see how dramatic the environment has been recently. Earth quakes can't be predicted and do a lot of damage. Luckily Chile is in a lot better conditions than Haiti.
-Sophie Szentes
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/11/louisiana.judge.impeached/index.html?hpt=T2
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that this man was impeached since it was only the second impeachment of a federal judge in twenty years. I'm interested to find out exactly what Judge Porteous did to receive this impeachment. It's good that people are cracking down on government officials with bad intentions because that strengthens our government. I bet there are a lot of government people that are selfish and are taking bribes or other things along those lines. I hope we get rid of all bad government people because they weaken our government.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_boy_s911_call
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was amazing that a boy so young knew exactly what to do when three men with guns rang the doorbell at his house. Grabbing his sister and a phone isn't what someone would expect a seven year old to do. But Carlos did and he scared them off as well when he told them that he had called 911. I think that this goes to show that parents should at least try to teach their children how to dial 911 even if they are young because you never know when you may need help and they are the only ones there.
-Katelyn